CVE-2016-7038 — moodle
HIGHCVE-2016-7038 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.3) CWE-640 vulnerability in moodle/moodle. A fix is available for moodle/moodle — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Moodle Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
moodle/moodle🐘moodle/moodle🐘moodle/moodle🐘moodle/moodleReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In Moodle 2.x and 3.x, web service tokens are not invalidated when the user password is changed or forced to be changed.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | moodle/moodle | ≥ 2.7&&< 2.7.16 | 2.7.16composer require moodle/moodle:^2.7.16 |
| 🐘Packagist | moodle/moodle | ≥ 2.9&&< 2.9.8 | 2.9.8composer require moodle/moodle:^2.9.8 |
| 🐘Packagist | moodle/moodle | ≥ 3.0&&< 3.0.6 | 3.0.6composer require moodle/moodle:^3.0.6 |
| 🐘Packagist | moodle/moodle | ≥ 3.1&&< 3.1.2 | 3.1.2composer require moodle/moodle:^3.1.2 |
Affected Products
moodlemoodleDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for moodle/moodle, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update moodle/moodle to 2.7.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2016-7038 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2016-7038 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.